What does it mean to be a member of SG1?
by Telsia-Cha'ris
Summary: Jack gives a lecture to new cadets on what being part of a team really means. This was inspired by Dragonfly’s fantastic music video – Armageddon.


What does it mean to be a member of SG1?

By Tels

General Jack O'Neill looked down at his notes and then out at the group of cadets in front of him. "What does it mean to be part of a team?" he began. He took a deep breath. "I would suggest it takes several things." He looked out at the eager young faces, all starting out on their careers in the air force. Four other people sat at the back of the room, lending him their support as they had promised. Three he had worked with for several years and one he knew by reputation.

He glanced back down at his notes. "Uncertainty is part of being a team," he said. "You go to the mission brief and then you get sent out there. No one knows what is going to happen as nothing ever goes to plan. You have to think on your feet, think fast at times. How are you going to get your team mates out of the situation you have found yourselves in? Did you make the right decision? Where do I go from here?"

He paused. "Every one of us at some point in our careers has been faced with uncertainty. But that is what we are trained for. Each time will be different, each mission will be different but the uncertainty is always there. However each one of your team will have the same doubts, same concerns that you do. You face the uncertainty together as a team."

Jack looked back at his notes. "Pain makes you part of a team," he said. "The pain of being injured, the pain of losing someone… a friend, a colleague, a member of your team. What you have to remember is this happens out in the field just as much as here on the base. Out in the field you can't afford to let your feelings show. And that sounds hard or callous but it is part of being a team. You let yourself get affected by your emotions and you put the rest of your team in danger."

He looked out at their faces, his eyes meeting Sam's. "Yes we leave no one behind but you can't allow your grief for fallen comrades to interfere. Get the job done, bring them home and then grieve." He looked down. "I have lost my share of friends and comrades over the years. It's not easy. And I have been injured many times. Again you have to force yourself to concentrate, to get the job done."

Images flashed before him as he spoke. A glacier in Antarctica, Daniel dying from radiation poisoning, Sam trapped behind a force field, Teal'c giving up everything to come and fight with them on Earth. "Your team depend on you fighting through the pain you feel, to get them home safely. Pain also unites a team like nothing else. The shock of losing a team member brings the rest of you closer together like nothing else can."

Jack looked down again. "Unimaginable danger," he said slowly. "You never know what dangers you are going to face out there. Simple things like a recon mission can change so fast and you find yourselves fighting for your lives. Facing foes and situations that are beyond anything your imagination can come up with. Far beyond what the mission brief had prepared you for. You need to work as a team to over come the danger, to face it and to push through it."

Some of the dangers he'd faced filled his mind. Replicators, the Goa'uld and being taken as a host. Fortunately none of these cadets were likely to face things like that. "Courage is also being part of a team," he said. "Courage to face that danger. Courage to fight back under fire, courage to face whatever comes through that door at you without flinching because you know that you are all that stands between that enemy and the members of your team."

He took a deep breath. "And courage to make that final sacrifice if needed." He paused, thinking of Janet Fraiser and the countless others who had died that they might have the freedom that they enjoyed today. "We go out there and we do our jobs. We didn't join the military to sit behind a desk. Although that is currently where I am now, I joined up to fight, to defend my country against whoever rose up against her. The same reason all of you did."

He looked at the four people at the back of the room. "None of us would be here today if it weren't for the courage of members of our team. And the ultimate sacrifice of some of them. Doing the right thing takes courage. Doing the right thing for your team takes courage. Being there for each other under fire, when things get tough or unassailable takes courage. Being part of that team takes courage."

Jack could do with some of that courage at this moment to get through the rest of his speech He looked over at Sam. He saw in her eyes the emotions that were echoing through him right now. He smiled slightly at her and took a deep breath.

Sam nodded almost imperceptibly at him. Her mind too was full of memories of the missions they'd been on and the foes they had fought against and beaten, sometimes only just, but all because they worked as a team.

Jack looked back at his notes. "Finally," he said, "Being part of a team means family. To all intents and purposes those four people or however many it is that you are out there with become your family. You live together, fight together, depend on each other for your very lives. You are with each other in times of joy, of grief, of pain. You see each other as you really are. Not just in your dress blues on parade, But first thing in the morning before your 6th cup of coffee when you're barely human."

He paused for the ripple of laughter. "When a letter comes from home saying that your father is sick and then as you are about to fly home the message comes that it's too late. It's your team mates who stand there and hold you and comfort you. It's them you turn to on a bad day when you are homesick, them you turn to when you get a letter saying you're a father and you're fighting a war 3000 miles away and you can't be there."

He took a deep breath. "They become your family. You would do anything for them because you love them like a brother or a sister. You would willingly give your life for them if it would save them. You would put yourself in their place if it meant they would not be hurt or locked up or tortured. You would become that member of your team if it would protect them. That is family."

He shuffled his notes. There was complete silence in the room. He looked over the cadets. Not a single one was dry eyed and he noticed that even the members of SG1 were surreptitiously wiping their eyes. "Your team see you through the uncertainly, pain and unimaginable danger you will face out there. They will give you the courage you need to get through by becoming your family." He paused looking at each one of them. "Have you got what it takes to become a member of this team? To give to those around you what they will give to you?"

He put the papers back in his pocket. "I have been fortunate to have worked with such a group of people. I owe my life to them many times over, although they will probably say the same thing." He noticed Sam nodding. "The officers standing behind you go are a group of many who all go out each day and put their lives on the line for this country. But most of all they do it for each other. They are a team. They live together, work together and fight together. They have come through untold dangers and uncertainties because they are a team. If you cadets here can become a team like them, then this country will be safe for many years to come."

Fin

© Tels August 2006.


End file.
